City Off To A Poor Start

City did exactly what they did this time last season and got off to the worst possible start at home, this time they lost 3-0 to Ipswich Town who quite frankly, must have thought it was their birthday.

First games of the season, away from home don`t come much easier than this one as the Robins showed once again that they are more than a little suspect at the back.

It was Ipswich`s new signing Michael Chopra that City could not handle he had the sort of debut that you dream of and showed that the £1.5 million that the Tractor Boys have spent on the striker is an utter bargain.

City fielded a familiar starting 11, Jordan Spence - re-signed on loan from West Ham - the only summer addition included. Midfielder Neil Kilkenny, had to be content with a place on the bench.

It took the visitors 13 minutes before they took the lead. Chopra raced onto a ball sent over the top by Kennedy and lobbed James as he came out and the ball settled into an empty net.

Maynard had the ball in the net at the start of the second half only to be denied by the offside flag.

A few minutes later and it was 2-0, this time the home defence simply let Martin through who then fired a shot across James and into the net.

Then on the hour mark, it was all over for City, if it wasn`t already. This time a back pass from Campbell-Ryce was woefully short and then James tried to be clever and Chopra caught him out and turned the ball into an empty net to ensure a day of disaster for the home side.

Grant Leadbitter could have made it four for Ipswich but his 18-yard effort hit the post.